NATS 1700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Buzzword, User Friendly, Open Architecture
Document Summary
A computer designed for use by one user. Origins: technological time sharing set a model, minicomputers showed what can be done, microprocessors enabled the pc, cultural, commercial. The computer performed tasks by quickly switching from one terminal to the other. The subjective feeling was that one had his/her own computer. 1973: intel launches the powerful 8080 microprocessor: used as the heart of computer systems, 290,000 instructions/second, embedded into other machines (cars, washing machines, made the personal computer possible. Once the pc was on the market more people were attracted to it which in turn spurred the supply. The big companies had the technical ability but not the vision to produce a pc. The electronic hobbyists take over computer liberationists join it. 1974 onward: several computers began being sold in kits. January 1975: altair 8800 is announced and would be sold as a kit for only us . Users wrote their own program by flipping switches: very difficult to use.